title: Loneliness among older veterans in the United States: results from the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study examined the current prevalence, and demographic, military, health, and psychosocial correlates of loneliness in a contemporary nationally representative sample of older U.S. veterans.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two thousand twenty-five veterans aged 60 years and older participated in the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. Loneliness was assessed using a questionnaire adapted from the Revised UCLA Loneliness Scale. A broad range of demographic, military, health, and psychosocial variables was also assessed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  44% of veterans reported feeling lonely at least some of the time (10.4% reported often feeling lonely). Greater age, disability in activities of daily living, lifetime traumas, perceived stress, and current depressive and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms were positively associated with loneliness, and being married/cohabitating, higher income, greater subjective cognitive functioning, social support, secure attachment, dispositional gratitude, and frequency of attending religious services were negatively associated with loneliness. The largest magnitude associations were observed for perceived social support, secure attachment style, and depressive symptoms.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Loneliness is prevalent among older veterans in the United States, and associated with several health and psychosocial variables. These results suggest that multifactorial interventions that emphasize bolstering of social support and reduction of depressive symptoms may help mitigate loneliness in the rapidly growing population of older veterans.
authors.affiliation: Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University Greifswald, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the HELIOS Hansehospital Stralsund, Germany. Electronic address: kuwert@uni-greifswald.de.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kuwert
authors.affiliation: Treatment Centre for Torture Victims, and Free University Berlin, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Knaevelsrud
authors.affiliation: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, VA Connecticut Healthcare System, and Department of Psychiatry, Yale University, School of Medicine, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Pietrzak
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008132:Loneliness / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Loneliness; PTSD; correlates; old age; trauma; veterans; war